1829.) 
ledge we possess relative to them) the idea 
cannot with safety or propriety be intro- 
duced—we have two excellent productions, 
one of them by J. Jones, R. A., and the 
other by H. P. Briggs, A. R. A. These 
works are the joint result of an order given 
to the artists respectively, by the British In- 
stitution, and are intended as presents to 
Greenwich Hospital; and the subjects chosen 
are of course commemorative of events in our 
nayal history. Mr, Jones’s work represents 
a particular moment in the battle of Saint 
Vincent,—when Nelson (the commodore) 
and Captain Berry, are leading a party of 
boarders over the deck of one of the Spanish 
vessels. We have never scen Nelson so 
well represented, with a view to pictorial 
effect—his historical character (if we may so 
speak) never so skilfully and impressively 
blended with the actual traits of his counte- 
nance—as in this work. There is also great 
spirit and effect given to the whole scene,— 
which is one of the best we could any where 
point to on so extremely intractable a sub- 
ject. Mr. Brigg’s picture, which is a sort 
of companion to the above, and of the same 
size, represents the late king presenting a 
sword to Lord Howe, on the Ist of June, 
1794, on board the Queen Charlotte; her 
Majesty and some of the Court being pre- 
“sent. This is a still more intractable sub- 
ject than the last, with a view to any thing 
like dignity or grandeur of historic effect. 
The odious costumes, and “ not to speak it 
profanely,”’ the no less odious physiogno- 
mies of our gold-loving (the antithesis of 
“ golden”) age, defy the pencil in this re- 
spect. All we can say, therefore, is, that 
Mr. Briggs has not only escaped unhurt 
from his task, but has produced a work 
highly creditable to his taste and execution. 
Descending (if it must be looked upon as a 
descent) one step lower in the scale of com- 
position, we meet with some exquisite works 
—works on which the value and beauty of 
this exhibition may be said almost entirely 
to depend. We allude to those having for 
their object at once to move, to elevate, and 
to gratify the intellectual faculties and affec- 
tions of the spectator, by illustrating matters 
connected with, or growing out of, the events 
of actual life and manners, or depicting 
actual scenery as modified and coloured by 
that life and manners. At the head of this 
class of works we must place two little cabi- 
net gems, by Newton.—The Letter, (166) 
and @ Dutch Girl (255). As a piece of 
execution,—resulting jointly from skill of 
hand, force of imagination, and delicacy of 
taste and feeling,we know of very few 
things indeed, that are superior to the first 
named of these works. Yet the whole pic- 
ture is simplicity itself. A single female, 
not a vestige of whose face you are per- 
mitted to see, has just opened and read a 
letter, which evidently contains some fatal 
news, for she has dropped it on the floor— 
buried her face in her hands—bent her frail 
form half way to the earth—and, in brief, 
Fine Aris’ 
319 
seems stricken into a new Niobe, for she is 
“all tears.’? We look upon this picture as, 
without exception, the best repetition we 
have ever seen of the antique painter’s idea, 
of hiding the face of an afflicted person, in 
despair of duly expressing the depth uf hu- 
man sorrow. Here, however, the attempt 
has evidently been made with the view, not 
of escaping from the artist’s admitted want 
of power, but of proving his possession of it 
—of shewing the possibility not merely of 
making inanimate things conform to and 
assist in the production of an expression that 
we look for from the human face alone, but 
of actually drawing the whole effect from 
these inanimate accessories. And the at- 
tempt has been singularly successful: so 
much so, that we scarcely think any expres- 
sion of face could haye added to the pathetic 
effect of the picture. The other work exhi- 
bited by Mr. Newton, is, we imagine, a 
portrait ; and it is, in point of style and exe- 
cution, not inferior to the foregoing. It re- 
presents a Dutch Girl, dressed in the national 
costume, and standing at an open window, 
the curtain of which she has just withdrawn 
with one hand, while she leans on the ledge 
of the window with the other. This work 
small as it is, (scarcely bigger than the 
page the reader is perusing) may be pro- 
nounced a capital production, no less for the 
force and spirit of its execution, than for the 
delicacy of taste displayed in the air and 
attitude, and the refinement of tact in the 
intellectual expression.—But we must stop 
here, we shall, however, return to the sub- 
ject next month. 
Portrait of the Honourable Mrs. Charles 
Lindsay.—We verily believe there is no 
end to the progress of improvement, in 
the department of Art to which this 
charming little portrait belongs. It forms 
the new number of the series of “ Por- 
traits of the English Female Nobility,” 
which grace the opening page of La Belle 
Assemblée; and though we lately pro- 
nounced an opinion that the portrait of the 
Marchioness Wellesley, which formed the 
last number of that series, had reached the 
acme of the art in such matters, yet we can- 
not but think that the present portrait sur- 
passes it in some particulars at least. This 
praise, however, is intended to apply entirely 
to the accessories of the picture—the dress, 
furniture, &c.; for we must still consider 
the face of the former portrait as maintaining 
the supremacy over any of the series that we 
have seen. In the white satin dress of the 
present picture, we have an effect produced 
not greatly inferior to that of an oil painting 
by Netscher, Terbourg, or F. Meires: yet 
with not half the “ appliances and means,’” 
employed by those artists; and the rich 
curtain which forms the back ground, the 
ornamented antique chair in front, the hair, 
&c. are of corresponding merit; and the 
whole forms a most agreeable and tasty 
production. The painter is Mrs. James 
Robertson, and Mr. Wright the engraver. 
Exhibitions. 
